Are Borneo natives being Malay-nised?

Photos of PMR examination slips bearing 'Melayu' ethnicity labels on native students have triggered discussions on NRD's alleged covert agenda.

KUCHING: Is the National Registration Department (NRD) on yet another covert exercise to Malay-nise natives in Borneo?

The question is being heavily debated by netizens in Sarawak after a Facebook user posted a PMR examination slip of a student – Jessica R James from SMK Kinarut, Papar, Sabah – which stated her ethnicity as “Melayu/Bumiputera”.

A group of Facebook users, including this journalist were tagged on Jessica’s PMR slip.

Another Iban parent in Sarawak, who declined to be named, told FMT that both her children’s examination slips also bore ‘Melayu/Bumiputera” as their ethnicity.

Her daughter is also sitting for the PMR exams which began yesterday. Her son sat for it last year.

“My son last year (took his) PMR, and today my daughter (took her) PMR. The same thing, it’s Melayu /Bumiputra,” she said via Facebook.

Netizens in Sarawak fear that the NRD records are being tampered with to register them as “Melayu” instead of their ethnic nativity.

Melton Kais, from Bengoh, Sarawak posted on the Facebook another cropped photo of the Bidayuh student’s examination slip, which put her race as ‘Melayu/Bumiputera’.

He claimed this was “ethnic cleansing at work. Non-Malay Sarawakians and Sabahans are all affected”.

Check ICs and MyKads

Another comment came from Di Entika-Shardlow, who alleged that such cases were prevalent during public examinations every year.

“It is best to check your ID card (MyKad) as well. Sometimes without we realizing it, our ‘Religion/Race’ might be changed by the JPN (NRD) people,” the user said.

K’dem Ales, another user, agreed with him.

According to K’dem Ales, he had a personal experience last month when he went to register the birth of his daughter.

“I was informed (by the NRD staff) that MyKad and the birth certificate had two separate systems.

“Just like in my case, my birth cert stated that my race is a ‘Bidayuh’, but in MyKad, my race is ‘Bumiputera Sarawak’,” he said.

He also opined that the matter might be even more disturbing for the illiterate and ignorant Sarawak and Sabah natives.

“How can we help them? Hopefully all the political parties, regardless of BN, Pakatan Rakyat, Star and others, will do something to ensure that the public sector agencies/departments do their work correctly with an acceptable level of accuracy, especially with regards to the rakyats’ personal details,” K’dem Ales said.

Those commenting generally feared there might be a hidden scheme to ‘Malaynised’ the Sabahan and Sarawakian natives in keeping with the current obsession among certain leaders.

Race, religion ‘divinely predestined’

Last week Sabah Mufti Bungsu@ Aziz Jaafar had allegedly urged Sabahans to embrace Islam and Malay-ness.

His suggestion, seen as the work of hidden hand in the peninsular, stirred anger in Sabah and put Sarawak on alert.

Historically neither states had a sizeable or disguishable  ‘Malay’ community. But over the years ‘Malay-ness’ has surreptiously creeped into  the Sabah and Sarawak Muslim culture.

In Kota Kinabalu yesterday, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) vice president Herbert Timbun Lagadan said no amount of  ‘tweaking’ can change the legal status of a person’s race and religion.

“A person’s race is divinely predestined and no one can change his true race by an act of law.

“A Dusun will always be a Dusun likewise a change of religion of a Murut man does not make him a Malay,” he said.

He hoped that the suggestion to Malay-nize natives “is not a guise to allow dubious Malaysian citizen to become Malaysians.”